How to Write a Great Sales Page

This question, or a variation of it, pops up all the time in Facebook groups and forums where online business owners hang out — and that’s hardly surprising.

It’s easy to think that selling has to be smarmy, icky, sleazy, and just plain yuck. It’s easy to think that — but also wrong.

It’s absolutely possible to write a sales page that doesn’t feel salesy — and that doesn’t sound like a million other sales pages on the Internet. You don’t have to follow a formula that sounds, well, formulaic. You don’t have to channel old infomercials or sell your soul.

You can write a great sales page, feel awesome about your offer, and make the sales you want, all without selling your soul.

In this post, you’ll learn what your sales page absolutely needs to include, plus what you definitely don’t want to do.
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Don’t Write Your Sales Page… Yet

Before we get to the how-to part, here are two REALLY important things you need to know before you ever start to write your sales page.

You cannot write a sales page, or even sell anything, until you know EXACTLY what you are selling, and EXACTLY who you’re selling it to.

Super obvious, right? And yet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a sales page with a headline like, “Live the life of your dreams.” Or “Maximize your potential and achieve your goals.”

Dude. I have no idea what that means.

What the heck are you selling, and who is it for?

“Live the life of your dreams” could be an ebook about losing weight, a course on study habits for college students, or a coaching program for couples. I just don’t know — which means that even if I’m the very person you want to sell to, I’ll never know it.

We’ll go into more detail on this in the how-to section. For now, the second really important thing you need to know before you write your sales page is this:

Your motivation should always be that you want to help your ideal client.

If your motivation for selling whatever you’re selling is repaying your student loan debt, or buying a fancy new car, or whatever you want money for, your sales page will be smarmy, icky, salesy, and sleazy.

When you started your business, there was something — beyond making money — that prompted you to do this thing. You saw a need, you saw a pain point, and you wanted to help someone, or some group, do something.

(If that’s not the case, then you can click away now, because this post won’t help you.)

Get back to your WHY. Think about why you started your business and reconnect with that before you try to sell anything.

Ready to write a sales page that rocks? Grab this free workbook and make it easy!

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Sales should never be about taking money from people. It should always be about providing massive value.

Your Sales Page Headline

The headline for your sales page needs to be amazing — and it has to include the benefit that people get from your product or service.

Remember, you need to know what you’re selling and who it’s for, and now you have to add in the benefit that your person gets from whatever you’re selling.

In plain English, you’re NOT selling an amazing course. You’re NOT selling awesome coaching services, or a workbook, or templates, or anything like that.

What you’re selling is the RESULT. What a person GETS.

For example, let’s say you’re a designer, and you have a package where you offer 5 custom-designed Pinterest pins and 5 templates that bloggers can customize as needed — all for an affordable price.

Your headline should be specific and clear. Save the cute and catchy phrases for something else.

Choose the Right Image for Your Sales Page

When you choose an image for your sales page, go with one that works together with your headline to show people the “after.” What will life be like after they buy your product or service? That’s what you want to show.

For example, my signature course is called Writing for Money. I work with moms at home with kids who want to break into flce writing. So the image I use is a mom working on a laptop with her baby right next to her.

Rachel explained that sheen refers to how shiny the paint is. This is something she knows, because this is her field. But if Rachel wrote a sales page,I’d advise her not to talk about sheen, but rather to use a phrase like how shiny the paint is because that’s how non-decorator people talk.

You have to use the language your people actually use, and not the language you are used to using.

Your audience doesn’t know as much as you do, and it’s really important to remember that. It’s not about talking down to people, it’s about starting where they are.

Storytelling on Your Sales Page

When you write your sales page, you need to share stories — the right way.

A lot of people do this thing where they say: Five months ago, I was just like you! And then, I did this AMAZING thing, and NOW, my life is AWESOME.

This feels icky — or at the very least, like you’re following someone else’s script.

He tells a great story about how, when he was learning to code, he literally didn’t have anything to show for it but lines of code, and no one wants to look at lines of code.

His course has you creating apps from day one, even if you don’t have a background in coding, so the story is, “You can show people these cool apps!”

He talks about how it feels to sit in a classroom or stare at a screen full of code, and how it’s boring and not engaging. Compare that with sitting down and building a working app in an hour, something you can show people — that’s exciting!

Want more great examples and inspiration for you copy? This FREE workbook’s got you covered.

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The stories on your sales page should always keep the focus on your person — the obstacles in the way, the problem that’s keeping her from getting what she wants. Make your stories about how your person feels.

How to Answer Objections On Your Sales Page

If you’ve spent time listening to your people the way you should, you’ll have a clear sense of their potential objections to buying what you’re selling. You’ll know their hesitations and obstacles, and you’ll be able to address those topics in your copy.

For example, the first time I ran Writing for Money, I talked about how comprehensive the course is, and how much information it covers.

I discovered, however, that my people — busy moms with young children — were more concerned that they wouldn’t have the time to do the work. So, when I rewrote the sales page for the second launch of the course, I made sure to explain that the work would only take about an hour a day — and that I’d show students how to find that time.

You won’t be able to address the things that are keeping people from buying if you don’t know what those obstacles and hesitations are. That’s why you need to listen carefully to your people and ask them the right, relevant questions.

The Most Important Part of Your Sales Page

Without question, the most important part of your sales page is the call to action. This is where you ask people to actually buy what you’re selling.

You definitely don’t want to go through the process of writing that whole sales page and then not bother to give people an easy way to buy, right?

Your call to action should remind your people of the benefits they get and the pain and inconvenience of not buying.Then ask them explicitly to buy.

Yep, you must flat out ASK THEM TO BUY, even if it’s hard or it makes you feel weird. You MUST be specific. You can have a button that says “Sign Me Up!” or “Give Me Access” or “Let’s Do This!” or whatever works with your brand, but there must be an explicit invitation to BUY.

And that button should be the ONLY clickable item on your page.

You want people to have one choice: Buy this thing, or close the page.

So your sales page doesn’t have a sign-up box for your newsletter or a link to your blog or anything else. There’s no regular navigation bar, and nowhere else to go.

Buy this thing, or close the page — those are your only choices.

If you’re ready to rock your sales page, be sure to grab the FREE Rock Your Sales Page workbook, with nine pages of instructions and help designed to get your sales page written, including two very important sections that aren’t covered in this blog post!

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